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Friday, 29 July 2011

I love tropical gardens. They are the gardens I grew up with. And even as I get older, saggier, greyer, these gardens remain in their prime, more beautiful than ever.

The Spa Room at Maya Ubud Resort

A great tropical garden is lush without being opulent, unyielding yet civilized, wild but not unkempt. I love that it is not dainty. Or delicate. Or cute. It is Wilderness on its best behaviour, untamed and idyllic, all at once.

Biyukukung Suites and Spa Resort At Ubud

In Bali, the science of building one has been perfected to such an art that often you are confused as to where the garden ends and the jungle starts. I have also caught myself asking on occasions,

Is this garden a padi field?

View outside a shop window in Ubud

or is this padi field a garden?

Grand Balisani Suites Hotel, Seminyak

This isnot a garden vibrant with colours nor can it boast as many flowers but there is no less poetry

Today my feet are so tired that I would settle the last photo of the foot bath!You make beautiful photographs which convey all the charm of the places you visit ... Of course, Bali helps a lot!Ah, thanks for telling me the serial killer ... Now I am more suspicious of miniaturists :-)Mini hugs, my blessed friendFlora

The sight of plumeria (is that the white flower with the yellow center) carries me back to my childhood. I lived on an island in the South Pacific which I have not thought of for a while. Thank you for tranporting me by your exquisite photographs. c

Dear Sans, PARADISE is a Garden.... and I am SURE it is as green and eternal and WILD and lush as your Gardens in these pictures! And the Gods are frequent visitors, of course.... for who would not wish to spend as much time as possible in such a place? I have to confess that in the depths of the COLD northern winters I have bought lush tropical greenhouse plants because I CRAVE that feeling!!! But no matter how I try, my little indoors collection of tropical plants can only pretend to be a wild jungle.... As for the lack of flowers... the Traditional Italian gardens specialize in greenscapes..... where the plantings are about the leaves and shapes more than the flowers.... and they have created some of the most magnificent gardens in the world! I love your descriptions and pictures of these Balinese gardens, and I thank you for sharing them here! I will come visit here often if I may..... :)

Love the photos - I too like the gardens no matter if there are tons of flowers there or just green in different shades - my favourite garden in Poland is...Japanese Garden in Wrocław and since when I visited it, it was late summer there were not many flowers there, yet all the shapes and shades of green were just GREAT!Thank you for taking us in another fantastic trip dear Sans:)Love your music as usual;)

Ahhh, visiting your blog is like a holiday break... and in this case a little like wandering along these lovely gardens with you. These gardens are very different from our European gardens - who would ever have guessed this (LOL) - but I've always found Asian garden, especially Japanese, very relaxing for the eyes and the soul. Thank you for those inspiring pics!

GreetingsBirgit

P.S.: As you know, I consider google translation being not helpful at all, but it did tell you the truth in my previous post! It was indeed a cucumber - a typical cucumber around here, we use it for salads or à la nature (we call it "Schlangengurke" = snake cucumber);O)

Lovely bones is truly a good movie but it's not the only place where you can see a dollhose belonging to a miniaturist killer.There have been a few episodes of Las Vegas CSI where a roombox was always left on every crime scene depicting exactly what the killer had done. Creepy but useful for investigations ;o)I'm patiently waiting for the gory details you promised ;o))Good night and have a nice weekend, Rosanna

First...I look at your wonderful photo's...then I come back after a few hours or a day and read your story and look at the photo's again....Then finally I visit your blog again to look again at your photo's and make a comment....I can't get enough of your blog!! :-)BEAUTIFUL!!! love the last photo!

Carol, I googled "plumeria" and it is indeed another word for frangipani, the more common term here. I have a frangipani tree in my sort of garden and I always collect the flowers if I have a dinner party. Frangipani is the official icon now for Balinese resort holiday! :).

You lived in the South Pacific ? That's exotic too!! Do you have pictures of your old home?

Bets, one of the most amazing tropical garden I have seen was in Sri Lanka. It was the residence of Bevis Bawa, a self taught landscape genius. He named the estate "Brief" because his father, a lawyer, bought the estate after a successful brief. But the more famous brother , Geoffrey Bawa built the garden that I really wanted to see . It's called Lunuganga which he styled after 15th century Italian gardens he saw when he was in Europe. I think its precisely for the greenscape that you had mentioned. Lunuganga is now opened to the public also as a hotel. So in my next trip, I hope to stay there.

Bets, have you seen this Robin Williams movie called "What Dreams May Come"? I can watch it again and again for the cinematography of what heaven (mainly gardens) and hell could be like. Let me cheat and use the words of a reviewer here :

"Watching What Dreams May Come is like observing a series of paintings come to life. Director Vincent Ward's view of heaven is surreal and spectacular, with special effects enhancing everything from the subtle greens of the mosses and grass to the crimsons, violets, oranges, and blues of the flower petals. It's a place where thought determines reality. Chris (Robin Williams) thinks in terms of a painting, so everything in his world is wet with fresh paint. His pallet is one of vibrant hues and magnificent vistas. Later, as we enter other compartments of the afterlife, we see images of celestial cities and angels, all of which will be familiar in style to anyone who has studied classical art. Likewise, hell is a grim, dark place, with the color leeched out almost to the point where everything is monochromatic. The sight of hundreds of lost souls capsizing Chris' boat is a chilling moment." http://www.reelviews.net/movies/w/what_dreams.html

Ewa, before I wanted Balinese Gardens, I wanted Japanese garden. the two of them could not have been more different! But yes, I wanted a Zen garden with raked sand, stone landscapes and no fallen leaves. Until my housemates laughed in my face and asked if I want to tend to the garden everyday raking and sweeping leaves. That's when I thought tropical garden , let nature take care of it! :)

ME

My Profile

These blogs chronicle my journey into the wonderful world of miniatures.
"The Beginning" is the prequel to it all, the one that triggered my obsession with the weird and wonderful world of doll houses.
"My Maharajah's Palace" is a journal of the trials and tribulations en-route to the building of my Indian Palace.
"Projects, Musings & AOB" is like my workroom or scrapbook of anything minis.